Montgomery College: Smokers, Take A Walk
Dec 10, 2008 21:00 - 2 Comments
Today’s Gazette details the lengths to which students who smoke will go in order to satisfy their need for a butt: they’ll take a walk off campus, through a hole in a fence, and right into College Gardens.
That’s got Rockville Central friend and College Gardens Civic Association president former president Mark Pierzchala steamed, saying they’ve simply “externalized the problem.” Translation: by banning smoking on campus, the school has handed the problem over to the neighboring community.
And a problem it is, evidently. “It really is becoming a dump,” the Gazette quotes Judith A. Pretka. “There are so many cigarette butts and cigarette packets and Starbucks cups left there.” Pierzchala says it’s more than just a few people complaining, too. His groupp wants the ban lifted.
For its part, the College is standing firm against any suggestion that it reinstitute its old policy of no smoking within 25 feet of buildings. “That’s a bit challenging,” replies vice president and provost Dr. Judy Ackerman in the Gazette. “The purpose of the ban is to create a healthy campus and repealing it would be back-stepping.”
Students agree that the ban has had some unintended consequences on the health of the surrounding neighborhood. “[I]t’s just moving the problem,” according to one 22-year-old student smoker. “Now residents have to deal with us, and that’s not fair to them.”
[UPDATED 9:10pm]
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I wish they’d just stop smoking. I smoked for years and wish I hadn’t. MC needs to be a good neighbor.
Mend the fence. Literally.